Friday, January 8, 2016

WHO IS DETECTIVE JO MARTINEZ?



It’s tough to be a female police detective in New York City.  Even tougher if you’re beautiful, and if you’ve just lost your husband to a heart attack barely one year ago.  But Jo is tough.  She can handle it.  The only thing that has her puzzled is her current medical examiner – none other than our own Dr. Henry Morgan.  He’s secretive, non-judgmental, and usually right about, well, everything.
In FOREVER’s pilot episode, Jo meets Henry following a subway train collision.  She finds his 300 year old pocket watch and the attraction begins.  Jo is quiet, reticent, and drinking in order to close the hole in her heart where her husband used to be.  She tells Henry, “There is a part of him that I still feel.  I just want it to go away.”  He tells her it won’t.  And makes her smile.
Frustrating as he may be, Henry can always draw a smile from Jo.  Makes you want to keep watching, doesn’t it?  Maybe even hope this rather odd couple— she’s cautious, and he’s hiding that little secret about being immortal—will eventually get together?
Well, I do, too.  Probably just the romance author in me.

FOREVER’s Detective Jo Martinez is Alana De La Garza in real life.  Though her acting name changed from Jo to Clara when she joined the cast of Criminal Minds, Forever Fans will always remember her as Jo.  And while we wish her the best in her new series, we all hope our FOREVER will return and Jo along with it.
As Henry says at the end of this first episode, “what keeps us alive, more important than blood or oxygen, or even love, is hope.”  And we believe it.


As always, I remain
Jayne Nichols
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3 comments:

  1. That was as beautiful as it was accurate and concise!! Brava! And thank you for stating what all the fans feel for both Jo Martinez and Alana de la Garza! Indeed, "Hope is what keeps us alive"!

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  2. Had the series continued the relationship between Jo and Henry would have created some interesting complications for the writers. Part of the attraction for viewers is the tension between them from Henry holding some secret from her, and her slow realization that he is, moving her from curious to suspicious as to what he is hiding, which increases the tension between the characters. This already very much happened in the first season. The viewers are forever on edge as to when she will figure it out (or he reveal it to her) and how it will happen, or how he will keep the secret for another episode. That's part of the attraction of the show.

    That's the problem, eventually it has to happen. Eventually she has to figure it out, or he has to let her in on it (particularly if they become more intimate), otherwise it starts to seem unrealistic.

    The problem is once that happens, the dynamic that was a major charm of the show is lost. If you remember the old Lois & Clark series, the show just wasn't as interesting after Lois figured it out.

    Would have been interesting to see how they handled that, and I remain bitter that this outstanding show was cancelled after one season.

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  3. Indeed, Keith. The problem of where to go next always occurs when the hero/heroine get together. Castle is a another example. The way they hit off each other in the first three seasons is what made the show. They got together and the show lost its pizzazz.

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